Let me tell you right now, you should be amped for this game. Maybe more than any game thus far. Yes, right now, Oklahoma City is in a playoff battle with Portland. Yes, this is a division foe. And yes, this is the Thunder’s supposed “rival”. But more than anything, for whatever reason, Portland fans tend to dislike the Thunder. Maybe it’s the Pacific Northwest connection or the Oden-Durant thing, but Blazer fans mostly don’t enjoy OKC. And that’s what makes these games fun.

(I’ll admit though, I really like the Blazers. I’ve admitted this before, so no need to heap more love on them.) And this one’s for the taking. No Brandon Roy. No Greg Oden. No Joel Pryzbilla. No Travis Outlaw. Portland has one of the best homecourt advantages in the league, but that doesn’t mean much to this Thunder team. The thing that frightens me a bit are the matchups (or one matchup), but we’ll get there in a second.

Portland coming in: The Blazers last played on Saturday, so they’re rested. They lost that game to the Lakers without Kobe. They’re 2-2 in their last four and 4-6 in their last 10.

THE MATCHUPSDurant has averaged 14.8 points on 28.6 percent shooting over the last four games against Portland. Nic Batum and Martell Webster have done excellent jobs against KD. And with Batum healthy, it’s possible he will be inserted into the starting lineup to check Durant. So if you’re worried about KD’s 24-game streak, you may knaw off your fingernails tonight.

Where OKC can make headway is with its bench and supporting pieces. Russell Westbrook against Jerryd Bayless will be a nice match, but with the way Russ is playing, you’ve got to like that one for OKC. Thabo will either start on Bayless or Andre Miller and that’s a good match for the Thunder because both guys are being relied upon to score right now. But on the inside, Jeff Green just can’t handle LaMarcus Aldridge. He’s traditionaly torched the Thunder. He left the last game early, but scored six quick points and looked to be a nightmare. After looking back, really this is the only matchup that scares me. Of course Juwan Howard isn’t wonderful, but he’s physical and done a nice job on the post for Portland.

Overall, this one will come down to containing Aldridge, locking down on whoever decides to take the secondary scoring load for Portland (Webster, Miller, Bayless) and the Thunder bench outplaying the Blazer bench. Sounds easy fellas. Get it done.

The Thunder’s riding a five-game winning streak and could stretch it to a season-high six with a win. Plus, that would be win No. 30 and edge the Thunder up the Western ranks. It truly a huge game. It’s NBATV’s Fan Night game and if you’re a fan of the NBA, this is absolutely must-see basketball. But the Rose Garden is a tough place to win and OKC has lost four straight to the Blazers. I’m cautiously psyched.

@justinThat's not what Portland fans are arguing however. If they were simply saying, "Oden was still the right pick at the time," then all you could say back is, "Yeah." And I'm not sure every team would have picked Oden. He was certainly the favored player with most teams, but Durant really was good enough to overtake him with some GMs, even back then.

The real issue is badmouthing Durant now despite the fact that there is absolutely no argument to make stating Oden is or will be better.

The Sonics would have taken Oden over Durant also, every team would have. I think Oden v. Durant in that context is silly, people make a big deal because it's Portland and Sam Bowie (who was much more of a red flag than Oden..), etc. No team would have taken Durant over Oden, teams are going to take the big man prospect every time (Darko over Carmelo, Olowakandi over everyone, etc. etc.).

I think it's stupid for PDX fans to think that Oden is better than Durant or expect that he will be at this point, but I don't think there's anything wrong with the decision since if our places were swapped Sonics would have 100% taken Oden.

How long before Portland gives up the whole, "I'd still pick Oden over Durant today" thing? I mean, no one in their right mind would pick Oden over Durant today. It's not so crazy to have whiffed on a draft pick. You don't see Detroit fans still saying "I'd still take Darko over Melo today." Oden isn't as bad as Darko, but they've both contributed about the same in their careers, Darko from lack of skill, Oden from glass knees/ankles.

I would definitely say that the key to the win wasn't the defense on LA but on Steve Blake and Rudy Fernandez. Both were shut out. That was huge for us. It forced Portland into leaning entirely on Miller and Aldridge.

I don't know what's up with games like this. I don't feel like we won. We held them to a season low, but I wasn't too impressed with the defense until the fourth quarter. We won the game, but I really hated our offense for most of it. I'm so happy we got out of there with this win. Let's take a break. Become best friends again. Dominate every facet of all star weekend and continue this winning streak.

Wow... The last 3 shots that KD made were crazy... Well, better later than never and he finally got into his mood to finish up the game.Harden and Maynor was great during the stretch... And Ibaka, talk about defense... Man, he totally made Green look bad... Ha, ha...